This article has been updated for clarity.
A proposal to provide a controversial method of public financing for an Albuquerque development failed twice on tie votes in the House tonight despite a huge lobbying effort.
The first 33-33 tie vote that left Senate Bill 249 dead on the floor shocked both supporters and opponents of the tax increment development district (TIDD) proposal. When a motion to reconsider was brought up moments later and also failed on a 33-33 vote (with some members changing their votes), jaws dropped even further.
Only one motion to reconsider is allowed, so the bill, which would provide some $408 million for the west-side SunCal development, is effectively dead.
But that doesn’t mean the SunCal TIDD is dead. Though the Senate bill, sponsored by Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, can’t be brought up for another vote, supporters of the TIDD made sure there was a second bill, just in case. It’s House Bill 470, sponsored by Ed Sandoval, D-Albuquerque.
Whether that bill will be brought up for a vote is not immediately clear. In addition to needing to pass the House, it would also need to pass the Senate. The session ends at noon.
The vote on SB 249 followed hours of debate on the controversial proposal. SunCal hired a dream team of lobbyists and covered the state in advertising to promote the TIDD proposal.
Locally, two representatives’ votes — or lack thereof — on SB 249 were noteworthy. Rep. Joni Gutierrez, D-Mesilla, didn’t vote the first time but voted for the unsuccessful motion to reconsider the bill the second time. And Rep. Nate Cote, D-Las Cruces, voted against the bill the first time but didn’t vote the second time on the motion to reconsider.
Cote, reached by cell phone after the vote, said he didn’t take a walk because of political pressure between votes. He has a contractual obligation to teach a course at Fort Bliss in El Paso at 8 a.m., he said, and he had to leave.
That fact, Cote said, was known for weeks. He stuck around until midnight so he could vote on the SunCal TIDD bill, he said.
“I did not take a walk. I’m entering Albuquerque now and I’ve got a long drive ahead of me,” Cote said at 12:30 a.m. “Had I known what was going to occur, I would have stayed longer.”
In 2008, the SunCal TIDD proposal died on a filibuster in the Senate as the session expired.